delicious bubbly

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth is glad that Milliways likes her, because she likes it. Jacob at her side and a glass of this nice golden stuff in her hand (she's tried the other synthetics; they're nice for an occasional change, but only humans care about dietary variety that much and this one is her favorite) and hubbub from a hundred worlds around her: lovely. A lovely break from work that keeps no one waiting, that doesn't even throw off her sleep cycle because her sleep cycle cares about the sun. (It throws off Jake's, a little, but his is more flexible than hers.)

Comments

[self_composed]

"Is Golden going to have a terrorism problem if you do?" Stella asks.

[luminous_regnant]

"If something like that does come up, he's just a human," says Golden. "He doesn't even want to turn. So I'll have a depressed-imperial-minister-of-temporal-affairs problem in fifty or sixty years, but." She shrugs.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Unless you do want to do the 'work-release' idea," says Elspeth. "In the manner traditional for Bells and Whistles."

[luminous_regnant]

"Elsie," says Golden, "the manner traditional for Bells and Whistles is very much not an option."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Unless he did the minting himself and just turned in coins to you," says Elsie. "Stella has extra mints now, she doesn't help them as well as Alice."

[self_composed]

"I do," says Stella, "but handing him mint power would be - eegh." Pause. "Perhaps I should go get Alice."

[manofmyword]

"Ooh," says the Joker. "Yeah, do that."

[self_composed]

"Nathan, you should probably be aware that your mate's template doesn't come in monogamous," says Stella, rising out of her chair and heading for the door.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"The template doesn't..?" says Nathan blankly. "Huh?"

[manofmyword]

"I'm a huge slut," the Joker translates, patting Nathan fondly on the shoulder. "And so are my alts."

[luminous_regnant]

"...Oh," says Nathan, unbalanced.

"You're the one whose timer picked him out," says Golden.

[self_composed]

[Hey Alice. One of Golden's staff met the Joker and mated to him and now they're talking about maybe having me remand him to Aurum. Want in on the conference?]

[edgeofyourseat]

He teleports directly in front of her.

"Yeah!"

[self_composed]

In they go. "Golden, Elspeth, Jacob, you remember Alice. Nathan, Alice; Alice, Nathan."

[luminous_regnant]

"Hello again," says Golden.

"Hi," says Nathan. "So can someone explain to me this coins thing, do I just not have the need-to-know...?"

"Your power functions quite well on limited information, so you haven't, previously, had the need-to-know," says Golden. "But now you're personally involved. Elspeth, you may as well, it's faster."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth sends a summary.

"Oh, yikes," says Nathan, looking down at the Joker in his arms and then at Alice and then back at the Joker.

[manofmyword]

"Aw, honey," he says fondly. "Can you put me down for a sec?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

Nathan sets him on his feet, confused.

[manofmyword]

He kisses Nathan's cheek again, then greets Alice with an enthusiastic hug.

[edgeofyourseat]

Awwww. Alice hugs him back.

[luminous_regnant]

"I can certainly avoid any large-scale human-caused disasters," Golden says, mostly to Stella. "The mint idea is - higher variance. Could improve things, could worsen them, would definitely make any recidivism harder to contain."

[self_composed]

"If you wanted to have a mint, you could've asked me instead of just perpetually trading for the coins, I was able to find two suitable ones on my world when I thought I didn't have Alice anymore," says Stella, ignoring her boyfriend and his alt while they hug. "It doesn't necessarily have to be this one. It only takes a star to send the notes to the candidates and then you have a bunch of people to interview. Less of a headache than wondering if the Joker's going to decide to blow something up this week."

[luminous_regnant]

"I'm not running my empire in the open yet. If you found two, in a world of six billion, I'm going to have a bit of trouble finding even one in an informed population well shy of a hundred thousand."

[self_composed]

"Mm. There is that. And my extras probably don't want to emigrate. You could do what Shell Bell did - pick someone you trust who's up for the job, nudge them the rest of the way with a pentagon."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Mama looked for volunteers for that already, among the coven and the wolves, and no one wanted it," says Elspeth. "Except Addy. Who isn't trusted that far, not with magic."